Railway-track.



, A. L. PLIMPTON. RAILWAY TRACK, APPLIOATION FILED TEB.24,1910.

Patented June 13,1911.

PATENT OFFICE.

antenna L. rn'mrroiv, or nos'roif msacnusn'rrs.

RAILWAY-TRACK.

Specification Letters Intent. Patented June 13, 1911. Application and February 24, me. man n. 545,689.

To all whom?! mm.- '-Be it known that I, ARTHUR L. PLIMP- TON, a citizen of the United States, residing in Boston, county'of Sufiolk and State of V Massachusetts, have invente' .an Improvement in Railwa -Tracks, of which the'following vdescription, in connection with the accompany drawings, is a specification, like letters on the drawings representing ikepu ,7

invention relates to a novel railway .traek and to a gnovel method of making the q same. Y The glofirovide ,a railway track composed o rails "a evi continuous wearing surfaces, free ffrom. reeks lormjoints, whereby the life of l'i f' the track and of fthe rolling stock is ma-' prolon'ed and. the cost of maintenancezreduce ito ,a minimum, while at the time=easier--ridin of the cars is'obtrained within material essening oinoise;

fcommonly which this-invention is particujppl cable, are-composed of lengths-or which are abutted and. secured 1y to'ether, by suitable fastenin deso'atat as-little space as possi le -is n 'succeedingrail'sections. Exas shown however, that'when the rack orfspace exists between the one of the railseotions which edthercceiving rail section, as the carwheel from thepreceding overthe' crack, which starts a $1011 or cavity in the receiving Bibii vitywhen once started 'increases I fiepidl d 'ni time renders therail section funfit, oi further-use, In the meantime, the.

JuSebi therail section is attendedib "an uneven running, of the car and by .isagree ablenoisecaused by the blow of the car wheel. Furthermore, the life of the track is'materially shortened as the receivixigrail may only defective at the joint wh' e the remaining portion ma lio conditmn. So also, t eexpenae of replaci aaiqwomf fai 35V"! m d e as present i nvention has for its ob'ect to constructed and '-me, therails of astreet railwayj jected to .a slight blow the.

tender the same," and this depres-z be in g d working cially when it is laid in ,a. aved street in whichthe pavin .blocks are ound together by tar or other inder, or in a street which is provided with an asphalt or "macada'm surface.

The above mentioned objections are overcome by. the resent, invention, which is applicable to o d or new tracks, and which I consists in uniting the head portions of con- 0 tiguous or adjacent rail sections, so as to form a plain track having a 'continuous tread surface v free from breaks or joints while the webs-0f adjacent rail section's are mechanically joined in the usual manner. 5 This result may be accomplished as will be described. These and other features of this invention will be pointed out in the claims atthe end of this specification. 7

Figure 1 represents in side elevation 'a sufiicient ortion of a railway track embodying t is invention to enable the same 'to be understood. Fig. 2, aplan' of the rails shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 3, a side elevation of a'worn, rail. Fig. 4,.a side elevation of two adjacent rail sections befiore their tread surfacesn're united, and Fig. 5, a modification to be referred to.

Referring to the drawings, a b, represent 8* two sections of a rail of the track of a street ,rai way, which are abutted and secured-toget er-by joint fastenings 0 bolted through the web ofthe said rails.

In accordance with this invention, a space is formed between the tread surfaces 10, 12, of the rails a; b, which may be accomplished by sawing or grinding, a tritogetherangular portion from the headof each rail the next rail section b to form, a continuous '100,

tread surface. The opening 13 may be filled with steel by melting theend of I are not worn, have the opening 13 formed in them by sawing, grinding Orotherwiseyre moving a portion of the tread surfaceof; both rail sections, as represented in Fig.4.;

, portion of w steel rod with the city-acetylene flame, which melted metal drops into the opening and molecularlyunites with the walls of said opening which are also heated by said flame. In this manner the opening 18 1s filled up step by. step and the heads of ad jacent rail sections are molecularly united- 'so as to obtain a continuous tread surface.

Any. surplus metal built up above the level of the tread surfaces may be ground oii or otherwise removed so as to'bring the upper surface of' the filling metal in the same plane as the tread surface of the rail sections. 'lhis operation 1s repeated at the joints of adjacent rail sections, until the whole or any desired part of the plain track rails have been. provided with continuous and unbroken tread surfaces.

It will be understood, that the web and base portions of adjacent rail sections are not-required to be united, and consequently old tracks now in use and having a break in the tread surface between ad acent rail sections, may be readily converted into-a practicallynoiseless track having continuous or unbroken tread surfaces, While the base and webportions of the rail sections are or may be broken or separated. I

In'tracks now in use, worn joints having a depression as 20, Fig. 3, and those which a railway track laid in the street and in use,

.can be converted into a track whose rails are' provided with'continuous or unbroken treadsurfaces.

\Vh'en a new track is laid, it me: be uni. necessary. to remove a portion of t e tread s'urfaccsfof adjacent'railf'sections, for in tliis case, the. rail sections a, -b,-inay be laid so as to leave a s a'c'e .bet ween them, the lower liicb; may be filled with a piece or section 3O 0t th'eijweba-nd base of the rail, and thespacc bet; I

head-s of the-trail seet-ions"u,b, may be filled and -molecularlyunited as above described,

en the tread portions or tion.

"face.

plain track of the railway continuous as to its tread surface throughoutthc length of the system, but it will be understood that any vide with a continuous. tread surface of substantial length falls within this inven- By the term plain track, I desire to be understood as meaning those portions of the'track other than the frogs, switches and crossings.

I have herein described one method of forming a continuous tread surface, but do not desire to limit the invention in this respect. By mechanically joining the Webs of adjacent rail sections as above described, the said sections, especially when composed of modern heavy girder rails, are'held at perfect-line and surface and with such force as to withstand changes of temperature. F urthermore, new tracks can be laid in a continuous manner in a minimum time and v at aminimum cost, and when laid and me- ,chanically joined, the spaces betfweenv the heads of adjacent rail sections may be filled with metal to form the continuous tread sur- The mechanical joints further afiord opportunity for connecting the rail sections by the" usualbonds, which are of the proper capa'city to carry a. current which would-not .and'the-ope'ning ,13 thus formed is filled with" metal as abov'edescribed. In this manner,"

be properly taken care of by the head portions only of the rails. 1

cOlnPOS-Qd'of ,lails'havi'nga continuous treadvsurface and non-continuous Webs and vbases,

which consists: in forming a]; spacebetween 1st in the usua -manner, and after the new trackfhds. been-flaid, the openings 13. may

' then befilled up as above described;

It will be seen. that in both cases, that is,

in old and new tracks, the rails are provided j continuous tread surfaces unbroken by oin or cracks, with the attending beneficnr esults above no'ted, w hile the webs a ml surface, which consists in removing apjon 'tion of the head of adjacent rail sections to form a space, heating the head'portions of with- "mOltehl metal .which is molecularly united tothe lieads' ofadjacent rail sections toflform a 'head of a rail betweenthe heads of adjacent rail sections which ismolecularly united to said adjacent heads, substantially ortion of the plain track which is proadjacent rail sectionsfand filling the space.

filling mid P; mad with metal whigfiis mobc- 10 uIm-Iy unitm to said walls.

In hestimrmy whereof, I have signed my name in this spmilicatiun in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

mum L. PLIMPTON,

Witnesses JAE. IT. (Janna-HILL, I. W. .Pmzzm'n. 

